Originally Posted by
emmylou25
Saw the matinee of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake at Sadlers Wells yesterday. Wasn't really aware of how much the story was different to the original so was a bit of a surprise that without buying a programme we were pretty much at the liberty of our interpretation of what was going on! (Have now clarified on Wikipedia that we followed it fine, but was still a little bizarre, and I was quite surprised at how many young children had been taken along - could see interesting conversations taking place on the journey home for some families!).
Anyway, despite the bizarre story, the dancing was amazing, in particular from the lead swan. Such strength and power, and he was sweating loads as were the other swans through their main pieces.
The queen was very good as was Dominic West as the prince. There was one scene where there was jazz/70s dancing in a bar - cleverly done but strange to a backdrop of Tchaikovsky. The bumping & grinding in several places amused the audience.
It was a spectacular show of dance, although the storyline was a bit depressing for my liking.
What I do find immensely annoying is when latecomers are shown to their seats by torchlight (they're always in the middle of a row) despite the tickets stating clearly that they won't be let in til the interval.
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